Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Governor Sonny Perdue has proclaimed October 19-25 National Forest Products Week,highlighting the Georgia Forestry industry’s $28.5 billion impact on the state in 2007. According to statistics released by The Georgia Institute of Technology, the Forestry industry also providedemployment for more than 141,000 Georgians and compensation of $6.7 billion to employees and proprietors.

“Our state is one of the nation’s leading pulp and paper producers,” said Nathan McClure, ForestMarketing Director for the Georgia Forestry Commission. “While the building products industry is being affected by downturns in real estate, the outlook is for positive future growth in relation to bioenergy.”

According to the report, the “Manufactured housing” economic impact sector posted the greatestloss between 2006 and 2007 at 14.7%. “Pulp and Paper” and “Packaging” were two sectors thatexperienced gains during 2007, reflecting increases in wood products exports.

Georgia ships more than $16 billion of forest products, such as lumber, paper, paperboard andallied products every year. The report shows local economies of 37 Georgia counties are “very” or“critically” dependant on the forest manufacturing industry. The Forest Industry ranks second in Georgia behind food processing when considering compensation to employees and proprietors. Forestry ranks third behind textiles and food processing when considering number of employees.

“Construction is continuing on the state’s first commercial scale pine-to-ethanol production plant in Soperton,” said McClure. “Plans have also been announced to build five pine-to-electricity plants in the state. Our rural forestry economy can be expected to improve as more investments are made in Georgia’s Bioenergy Corridor.”

The complete 2007 Economic Impact of Forest Products Manufacturing in Georgia report can beviewed at GaTrees.org/Forest Marketing/Doing Business in Georgia.